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Sakmongkol ak 47

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Wednesday, 11 June 2008

We must always retain a deep suspicion and scepticism about the motives of those who seek powers over others. In politics, we became conscious of this fatal conceit of those proselytizing their altruism when those countries adopting socialism imploded and later voluntarily embraced capitalism. People are very gullible to the likes of Mr Anwar Ibrahim of their high mindedness to regulate and plan their welfare. Do we place our trust in Mr. Anwar? Perhaps he is the proverbial Greek bearing gifts that we all should beware of. Back during the financial crisis I was dumbfounded to discover what a babe in the woods was Mr Anwar in economic management. Der Doctor was more competent in this field. In Economics, there has emerged a branch in the study of that dismal science that seeks to unravel the vested interests that lurk behind every executive act. This is called Public Choice Theory economics which was started by Professor James Buchanan and the Virginia School.

The great virtue of market economics is that most of the material benefits can be secured through voluntary pursuit of self interests, and hear this- without the interference of government and coercive attempts by others. It is sufficient to rely on the most basic human instinct of pursuing self interests. It is through the natural propensity to truck, barter and exchange , the invisible hand operates to shape an economic order. In that economic order the pursuit of individual self interests where you offer something of value to acquire value, leads to the material benefit of society as a whole.

I have before me several books written by F.A Hayek.[1] Hayek is another great thinker who says that it is our duty to ensure that we preserve the continuance of the extended order of human cooperation. He refers of course to capitalism. Our civilisation indeed depends on the continuance of such an order. The political upshot of such a system is that a society based on such an economic order does not require the interventions of some omniscient and omnipotent central authority so favoured by Mr Anwar Ibrahim and his supporters. I count Azmin Ali as Anwar’s Himmler. Unfortunately there are many within UMNO too who favour such approach, conferring upon themselves an innate monopoly on altruism. Dato Seri Najib certainly falls into such a category. He has succeeded to mould the majority in Pekan into mindless and pliant supplicants.

[1]F.A. Hayek, is an Austrian economist who was also a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Among his books, The Constitution of Liberty and Fatal Conceit.